| 1. |
- Saarela, Jan, et al.
(author)
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Ethnic Composition of Couples and Mutual Health Benefit Receipt : Register-Based Evidence from Finland
- 2022
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In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. - : MDPI AG. - 1661-7827 .- 1660-4601. ; 19:1
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The literature on health dependencies among partners typically ignores diversity of partnership characteristics. One salient example is the ethnic composition. We extend prior work on partnerships and health by investigating how married and cohabiting partners mutually influence each other’s receipt of health-related benefits, focusing on how such correlations vary with the couple’s ethnic composition. We study partners’ mutual receipt of sickness allowance and disability pension in ethnically endogamous and exogamous couples in Finland. The population consists of native individuals in similar socioeconomic positions but belonging to two different ethnic groups—Finnish and Swedish speakers—who differ in health and family life. Using data from population registers, we estimate discrete-time hazard models for first-time benefit receipt, as related to partner’s benefit receipt, among midlife couples. We found evidence of mutual receipt of health benefits in both endogamous and exogamous couples, the correlation being strongest for disability pension. Partner correlation in disability pension receipt is slightly stronger in endogamous Swedish than in endogamous Finnish couples, while women in exogamous couples are slightly less sensitive to men’s receipt than vice versa. The results show that mutual health may be heterogeneous across couples that differ in ethnic composition.
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| 2. |
- Saarela, Jan, et al.
(author)
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In sickness or in health? Register-based evidence on partners' mutual receipt of sickness allowance and disability pension
- 2019
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In: Social Science and Medicine. - : Elsevier BV. - 0277-9536 .- 1873-5347. ; 240
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies on partners' mutual receipt of benefits constitute a growing research field in the way individual health and health-related decisions depend on social relations. This paper provides the first study on the mutual receipt of sickness allowance. We analysed married and cohabiting couples' receipt of sickness allowance and disability pension by estimating discrete-time hazard models for individuals aged 40-65 years, using longitudinal register data from Finland. The data cover the period 1987-2011, and allowed us to explore socioeconomic and demographic variables at both the individual and couple level. We found strong and long-term interrelations in receipt behaviour and dependencies across benefit types. The risk of receiving sickness allowance increases by 50 per cent during the first years after the partner's first receipt of the same benefit, while the risk of receiving disability pension is twice as high even five years after the partner's receipt of the same. Women appear to be more instrumental than men in the production of health within the couple, even in a context of high level of state support, gender equality and female labour force participation. Their receipt of disability pension is more related to the male partner's receipt than vice versa. For sickness allowance receipt, the gender asymmetry is small. Mutual benefit receipt of benefits may relate not only to collateral health effects but also to shared preferences and partner selection. We cannot distinguish between the mechanisms. However, couples with more economic and social resources seem to be more efficient in joint decision making. Correlations are particularly strong in the immediate term, and for couples who are highly educated, for those with high income, and for those with children in the household. More effective policies may be needed to equalise information regarding benefits, and monitor the use, and potential misuse, of these health benefits.
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| 3. |
- Stanfors, Maria, et al.
(author)
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Between voluntarism and compulsion : membership in mutual health insurance societies in Swedish manufacturing, c. 1900
- 2024
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In: Economic history review. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0013-0117 .- 1468-0289. ; 77:1, s. 244-267
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Membership in mutual health insurance societies spread among industrial workers in the late nineteenth century. We study determinants of such membership among male workers in Swedish manufacturing by using matched employer–employee data from three industries covering all workers (i.e. members and non-members, N > 12 000) and firms around 1900. We find remarkably high rates of membership overall, and especially among married workers. The association between marital status and health insurance suggests that selection into health insurance societies was ‘propitious’ rather than ‘adverse’. Many workers became members well before the age of 40 years, when their health began to deteriorate, and this coincided with the average age of first marriage for men, occurring in their late twenties. Being married and having membership was more marked in firms with voluntary membership and was important for the viability of the mix of voluntary and compulsory health insurance societies emerging in Nordic countries around 1900. Findings support the idea that health insurance can attract high levels of membership under voluntary schemes and suggest why it took so long before statutory health insurance covering sickness absence and workplace accidents was introduced in Sweden.
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| 4. |
- Stanfors, Maria, et al.
(author)
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Intergenerational transmission of young motherhood. Evidence from Sweden, 1986-2009
- 2013
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In: The History of the Family. - 1873-5398 .- 1081-602X. ; 18:2, s. 187-208
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study examines the intergenerational transmission of fertility patterns from mothers who had their first birth at young ages to their daughters using nationally representative longitudinal data from from population registers in Sweden, 1986-2009. It tests several mechanisms, including education, labor market attachment, socio-economic background, and family characteristics, that may intervene with the intergenerational transmission of reproductive behavior, to help explain to what extent and how early motherhood is reproduced across generations. We find that maternal age at first birth is a very strong determinant of daughters' entry into motherhood. Even after controlling for individual, background, and family factors, daughters of mothers who were relatively young when they started childbearing, are significantly more likely to have their first birth at young ages.
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